Hi again everyone,
I have figured out the beauty of the Undeposited Funds account (love the payment window for preparing the bank deposits of the credit card settlements from visa etc). However, the cash side of things is less clear to me. Here's the situation:
We have an account called "Cash Drawer Funds". This is where all cash sales are placed in POS (we summarise sales receipts for each day's trading and post them at the end of day). The owner was also instructed to do a "Float IN" each morning (the money placed in the till) and a "Float Out" each evening (what she took out of the till). Each of these transactions through POS creates a GJ entry moving the money to/from Undeposited Funds and Cash Drawer Funds. As a result, both these accounts have crazy balances and it's very difficult to reconcile the cash deposits to Bank from these accounts. I should note, the owner may change the float amount from day to day or may take out less then was put in in the morning. She also saves up the cash to do the banking about once a week (it's not in the till at that point). She was advised she could stop doing the Float In / Float Out transactions as long as she kept manual "till summary sheets" that document: total sales, each cash pay out (eg. payment to delivery drivers), total credit card sales in drawer, total eftpos sales in drawer, and total cheques in drawer and the cash over/under. I think they also indicate the float in / float out amounts. It just seems crazy to use a manual paper system after spending so much money on a POS+accounts system!

Sorry to be so long-winded, but I hope someone can suggest a "SIMPLE" solution for us to:
1) Record the cash drawer amounts so the correct balance (about a $300 float) stays there on a regular basis!
2) Account for the 'petty cash'-style expenses that come out of the till
3) Provide a means to account daily for the over/unders in the till and post that to the over/under expense account
4) Provide a way to make an easy cash deposit to the bank when it's time (weekly) either using my favourite payments window or by entering a normal deposit.
5) Provide a way to see at a glance how much cash is waiting to be deposited (that is make sure it's being accounted for, not just sitting out somewhere!)

Ok, here's some answers. The way QuickFuel does this is not very useful - they actually only do half the job, which is about as useful as not doing any of the job. The Float in and out is not really of much use - particularly if you vary the float every day. Better not to use it and then not get confused by it.
Have a spreadsheet made up to hold the daily Reconciliation we are about to define. Print this out and use it every day. After it is filled in, staple the register end of day docket to it and file them in a robust folder. You should have one for each Shift or register. Your total for the day will be the total fo these. If you only have a couple, you may get it all onto one spreadsheet - but you should do them individually - maybe with a total column.
The spreadsheet should show:
Date
The Register (or shift) being balanced
Amounts for each payment Type - eg
Cash
Cheques
Subtotal
EFTPOS
Amex
Diners
Each Fuel Card
Any other types
Total

Plus Charge Sales
Payouts
Less Received on Account
Total
(This is your Sales Figure calculated from the money)
Less Gross Sales from the POS
Equals Register Discrepancy.
(bearing in mind this may contain float variances).
If you bring in all the sales through the Import process, you need to then bring all the money in and allocate it to the appropriate accounts - Bank Clearing accounts etc. The Payouts should be posted first to a Clearing account and then a Cheque written out for the expense. If you put the expense on the Sales, it reduces your GST patyable instead of increasing your Input tax credit. The difference between the money and the Sales (the discrepancy we have created above) is a combination of the actual discrepancy and the change in Float. Treat this as money received and post this into the float account. When you actually count the floats and find what you actually have, compare this with the figure in QuickBooks. the difference is the actual discrepancy. Post this to your discrepancy account.
This end of day processing directly into QuickBooks and MYOB is what OzBiz Solutions are involved in. We are currently working with eight major POS developers and are offering a one button 30 second fully reconciled import of Sales, Money and the Stock Purchases.
Just been working on a Fuel Site who has just dumped QuickFuel. He says it has cost him a fortune through the problems it has caused. Also says the support person is rude and unhelpful. I explained that to be fair to her, they don't have any answers that she could give him, so it would be unfair to expect her to actually help (no excuse for the rudeness though).

Let me see if I understand (my trial version of POS has expired so I am working blind until I go to my clients location and of course QB doesn't put manuals online )...

The end of day report totals (or Z-tape report?) will show the cash/chq/eftpos/diners/amex etc payments for the day. Those figures are transferred to the spreadsheet.

Then add charge sales (I'm assuming you mean charges on account - we don't have any).

Then add??? cash payouts ... (is this to increase the cash total from above to account for cash removed from the day's sales to make payouts? If so I guess that assumes the Payouts must be identified to POS as some kind of Cash Out transaction posting to the clearing account you mentioned.)

Then less received on account (we do have a form of this) I guess this will reduce the total day's sales figures to account for the fact received on account isn't really a sale for the day.
Total -- this is the total sales for the day as per what the 'register' is telling us.

Less Gross Sales from POS (I assume this is on the end of day reports? And this is the 'sales' side of things rather than the 'payments' side in the previous step?)

= Register discrepancy

Ok, now we can post this discrepancy to a Float Clearing account (not the "cash drawer" account?). Then when the float is actually counted, it should be compared to the balance of this account. The difference is the over/under posted to the appropriate expense a/c.

Forgive my ignorance, my retail background is thin, I still can't see how this works on a daily basis. Each morning the float is added to the till (it's emptied at night). Should this be recorded somewhere each day or is that overkill? Banking is done approximately weekly.

Does this make sense:
The Float a/c holds only the float amount (nothing else from the till - that's all in "Cash Register Funds"). The Float In transaction moves money from Undeposited funds (or cheque acount) into "Float". Then as long as the float stays the same (same in same out each morning and night) nothing happens except for these "register discrepancy" posts. Then if more float is added (from UF or Bank a/c) a Float In transaction takes place). Then at the end of the week, the total cash receipts are added up from the spreadsheets of the week, less payouts, add payments on account, less discrepancies, less current float balance, = cash deposit amount? So when they count it up, they should have the cash deposit amount in cash and the current float account balance still sitting in the till. At this time a post for the over/unders should be made to reduce the Float . Then they can choose to increase or decrease the float as needed before or after the deposit.

Can someone tell me if I'm getting close. I don't want to re-invent the wheel but I also want to make this daily till counting / reporting process smooth and quick as possible.
By the way, I'm not using QuickFuel... we're using Retail POS 2006-2007
thanks

"Then add charge sales (I'm assuming you mean charges on account - we don't have any)" - "Then less received on account (we do have a form of this)" - You can't have one without the other.
"Less Gross Sales from POS (I assume this is on the end of day reports? And this is the 'sales' side of things rather than the 'payments' side in the previous step?)" - correct, remember we are measuring "sales" created from the money receipts with "sales" from the POS end of day report.
"Each morning the float is added to the till (it's emptied at night). Should this be recorded somewhere each day or is that overkill? Banking is done approximately weekly." - You do need to have an Asset account for the floats - and it is this that will be varied by the "discrepanacy" that is created by balancing each day. Even if you bank weekly, you need to balance daily against the end of days from the register.
Think of this in real terms - not accounting terms first. You have Floats sitting in the safe. Each morning these are taken out and put into the register. At the end of the day the POS reports how much money you should have received and posts this into the accounting. (But this may not actually be the correct amount received). The money is taken out for banking and the floats are put back into the safe. But because the actual money received is not what was posted in, what we have actually done and what POS sys we have done are not the same. Hence we add the discrepancy to the Floats we put into the safe. Now at a later date we can count the Floats and find out the amount we are out from what we should have. This we post to the real register discrepancy account.
Hope this clarifies the situation a little more.
My concern is that QuickFuel is very likely to get the user into a total accounting mess, not just here but everywhere they turn. The simple fact is that integrating fully into QuickBooks the way they do is very dangerous. I have heard many horror stories from users who have found it has not served them well (not something Reckon want publicised).
The simple fact is that what they do is inappropriate in Service Stations. Be warned!

I'm beginning to see the light. I think one of our main problems is not tracking the float separately - I guess we need "Cash Register Funds" + "Cash Register FLOAT" asset accounts. This should simplify the counting and posting and let QB show really where the cash is sitting. I guess ideally the days cash that is removed from the drawer for banking would get an entry from Cash Register Funds to Undeposited Funds. That way the bank deposit can be made up easily from Undepostited Funds over the whole week.

Quote:

"Then add charge sales (I'm assuming you mean charges on account - we don't have any)" - "Then less received on account (we do have a form of this)" - You can't have one without the other.

You are good...spotted my other outstanding problem! We take "NON-Refundable Deposits". I can't find any references to this. I'm not sure on the accounting either - seems to me a non-refundable deposit is income not a liability. At the moment we take payments on account to give the customer a negative balance. Then on the day they incur the bulk of the charges and settle up their bill their account already shows they've paid the deposit so we don't overcharge them. If we issue an invoice or sales receipt on the deposit it won't show in the final total. I guess we need a "partial payment" on an "open invoice" if such a thing exists (we don't know what the final charge will be until the day - think catering: customer makes deposit then is charged for total food & drink ordered at the event). The way we're doing it is clunky - the deposits are frequently not applied (credit) so the customer balances are out. Causes some confusion on the day at the register.

Fun eh? Oh, by the way, when you refer to QuickFuel not cutting it, are you saying Retail POS has the same problems?

Non-refundable deposits. Have to think as I write. Firstly, not normally reportable for GST at the point of receipt, as no goods or services have passed hands. Although I have seen some ATO rulings in relation to deposits on construction that suggests they want GST paid when progressive payments are made. If no GST, then no sale - bring in as deposit to a liability account. When make the charge (or claim the deposit), make out an Invoice and pay from the Liability account. But as a workable alternative, what you are doing may not be correct in pure accounting terms - but it will work. Just remember to actuallu apply the payments, not just sit them there. Under Cash Accounting, GST is not reported until the payment is applied.
On QuickFuel - I need to be careful I do not over step the mark in relation to my comments on QuickFuel and QuickPOS. Everything I have said so far I have said to Reckon face to face, with supporting evidence -and they know my beliefs. And the answer is Yes, they are the same. As a trainer, I have assisted people who have found there is nowhere they can go to get the assistance they need. Even as far away as Canada (where it is no longer sold or supported).
On the other hand, we are working with a number of large developers in the POS industry - all who have very successful programmes. But all have their good points and their shortfalls. It just seems to be the nature of the beast, just some are better than others. And all are in a continual state of improvement (read two steps forward - one back). None are a fully finished complete solution that requires no further work. Maybe one day..........